Arc 1: One World: Chapter 1/Feels Like Home
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon; Pokémon belongs to a very rich company called Nintendo. I only own my individual characters and ideas.
AN: Revamp of this chapter is now complete and I need a beta. Please review!
'Thoughts'
"Speech"
/Telepathy/
"Pokédex"
"Foreign Language"(As in, a language that is not spoken by Candace when the story is from her point of view.)
Feels Like Home
Frankly, Candace was glad that her father had left the room not a minute before her DS had its miniature seizure-lightshow performance. With his absence, he had just left to smoke a cigarette; the curly-haired teen could investigate what the hell just happened without him sticking his nose into it. As much as she hated her Father's addiction to nicotine, it was really to her advantage today. While no more than a paragraph of the song had come out of the DS's speakers Candace could recognize what it was easily. Pushing a dark brown, almost black, curl behind her ear the teen opened her light brown eyes. The slightly tan girl was perhaps a little tall for her age of sixteen years but still short enough that when compared to her male peers she was a little short. Thick, curly hair was kept short just below her ears so that instead of being an indistinguishable frizzy mess, she had slightly messy half-formed curls that were at least more manageable than what the state of her hair when she kept it long.
Taking a deep breath, without looking at her DS, the teen scooped it up carefully, stood up from the couch in her family's sitting room and made her way down the hallway to her bedroom. The room she had just left was a cozy place to laze about; worn hardwood floors covered with a thick dark green rug; a fire burned merrily in the fireplace. The flat screen television that hung on the bungalow's wall was a few years old but still worked well enough that her father, Cameron Wilson, didn't need to replace it. A well-stuffed couch was pushed against the wall opposite the television and in between the couch and a plush armchair, that in a way had her dad's name written on it, was a wooden side table with carved legs with a plain blue china lamp with an accompanying cream lampshade.
Entering her room, having left the white walls of the hallway, Candace closed the door to her bedroom with a soft thunk. Licking her lips nervously, trying to ignore the different texture of the device in her hands, she sat down on her bed daintily with her legs hanging off the side. Posters of all description lay on Candace's bedroom walls. A large Bleach poster with the cast of season one had a place of honor above her bed's headboard and Tidus made an appearance with Yuna in her summoner outfit right beside a window covered in a thin layer of frost. The whole Death Note cast was featured on a laminated poster pinned to the light blue wall above her rickety cedar table. A quick glance out the window would reveal thick snowflakes falling down heavily; in places all over the world the land was on the verge of spring but, in southern Quebec, winter still had the area firmly within its grasp.
At the age of sixteen, the curly haired brunette appeared to be slightly overweight when compared to her numerous slender peers at school but was well within the healthy weight range for her height of approximately five feet eight inches. Clad in a comfortable worn pair of blue jeans and a warm woolen sweater, it seemed odd that she wasn't wearing any socks. The wool sweater was a red one with relatively large wooden buttons that were inserted into woolen hoops attached on top of the sweater in order to close it tightly when it was buttoned.
Despite herself, Candace snorted, 'Spring Break indeed,' as she could feel a chill work its way up from the wooden floor and into her bare feet. Quebec, in her experience, ranged from the two extremes of hot and cold during the summer and winter. The temperature was only moderate for small stretches of time in spring and fall, with the occasional false springs lasting maybe a week or two during the winter before the area returned to its frozen wasteland status. That happened occasionally during the winter if they were lucky. Which was, unfortunately, not the case at that point in time. Smoothing down the floral duvet below her and otherwise fidgeting Candace finally looked at the silvery grey DS in her hands.
While at first glance the device, she refused to call it a DS or game boy even in her head anymore, could have been the same well-loved DS it had been. Candace saw that, violating quite a few laws of physics; the handheld gaming device had changed. It was the same general shape, the teen couldn't tell offhand that it weighed differently, but it was different. In addition to the small changes in its appearance, the screen displayed an unfamiliar title. PokéWorld was written in a familiar yellow and blue bubble font that Candace recognized instantly. As she had never heard of it before, the brunette teen frowned. The material the device was made of was still warm; not scalding as it had been before, the durable plastic had become what appeared to be smooth and slick metal. Despite the fact that it felt like metal, Candace had flicked it to try and confirm the fact, the brunette still wasn't sure.
Light brown eyes flicking to the lower screen and, as was a habit of hers when she was confused or frustrated, Candace crinkled her nose. The thing in her hands, whatever it was, was now asking for a fingerprint. White text on a blue background, also very much like what Nintendo used for it's generation four games, explained that in order to process her request, it required confirmation of her identity. Security Settings was the header of the small lower screen and under the small paragraph of explanatory text, a small vaguely fingerprint sized oval resided. Despite all of the warning signals going off in the back of her mind, the teen still felt very curious about what had just happened. A flicker of doubt grew within her but quashing it instantly, throwing caution to the figurative wind, Candace pressed her right index finger down on the dark grey oval.
A sound that reminded the teen of connecting to a pokéwalker came out of the speakers as the device scanned her fingerprints. A ping sounded and the brunette felt a faint sense of regret. A green confirm and a red terminate button were now on the touch screen. Rolling her eyes, Candace pressed the green button instantly.
'Now that I think of it- is a DS even capable of the amount of detail a fingerprint would take?' Candace thought, even as she quickly dismissed it. Whatever had become of her DS; it was long gone now as the thing in her hands was obviously capable of just that. That made her pause, 'Where is it?' With that coming to the forefront of her mind, Candace instantly flicked her hands to the back of the device. Hands, sliding over what suspiciously felt like a small patch of glass on the back of the top screen, instantly stilled when she felt that the cartridge was still in the device. Sighing in relief, crushing the thought that there was a possibility that it wasn't her copy of Pokémon Diamond, Candace turned her attention to what was now on the screen.
Reading what was now on the screen, taking out the stylus with a flick of her wrist, Candace began to tap the letters of her preferred password. Gently tapping confirm twice Candace raised an eyebrow as, once again; the red and green options were on the touch screen. Shrugging, and without a thought, Candace tapped the green option. She felt like growling when it went to another required security feature. The small blurb of text asked rather politely to verbally repeat her password. While continuing this was steadily growing into what felt like a very bad idea, Candace reasoned that since her DS had somehow changed physically at the very least this wasn't some sort of scam to try and con her identity off of her. Pressing the stylized microphone picture on the touch screen, Candace clearly pronounced her password while continuing to keep slight pressure on the drawing. Pressing the yes button, as yes she was satisfied with the recording, the brunette once again tapped the green confirm button.
Without missing a beat she tapped the girl option but she felt a slight spark of surprise when her eyes caught a third gender option just before she pressed the now familiar green button to confirm. Smiling but then rolling her eyes, Candace entered her name with the stylus. The screen was the classic name yourself screen. Considering the information she had already given it, the brunette entered her full name of Candace Miriam Wilson. The teen felt a little surprised but after what had happened she pushed it aside. Candace felt she might as well give the person his money's worth if this turned out to be some sort of elaborate scam. Despite all of the hints, both subtle and obvious, towards Pokémon she still didn't know what all of this was about. The so called PokéWorld had bloody physically changed her DS, so either something extraordinary was going to happen or she had gone off the deep end. Candace really hoped it was the former.
Candace reached what she hoped was the last confirmation screen after she had chose to answer yes to say that all of the choices she had made so far were correct. Tapping her right foot impatiently the teen watched as it went to a loading screen. Candace growled at her DS while thinking, 'I want to know what happens now, damn it!'
Candace could see the bar filling rapidly and then starting back at the beginning as different aspects of PokéWorld installed. She could make out a few file names as the words went flashing by, but unfortunately most of it was gibberish to the teen. Despite her eyes catching a few words here and there, Candace mostly ignored the installing program while she tapped her right foot impatiently. It drew her attention momentarily, however, when the title changed to 'Processing Pokémon' but the slightly immature teen quickly lost interest as it soon became apparent that it was just another loading bar.
"Hurry up!" Candace growled when she saw that it was only at eleven percent. A few minutes later, her hands twiddling with a thread that had come loose of her thickly woven red wool sweater joined her foot in fidgeting. Impatient, Candace began to concentrate on the thread and had to suppress the urge to pluck it out. With her luck, that thread would be the one that held the whole sweater together and pulling it out would lead to it totally unraveling.
A pinging sound from the former DS came out of its speakers and drew Candace's attention instantly. No longer fidgeting, the teen fully concentrated on what was now on both screens. The touch screen instantly reminded her of Heart Gold. The options that were there however reminded her of Action Replay, as the first option was to start the game normally. The following tabs underneath it were titled Storage, Pokédex, Shop, Mystery Gift, Import and Export. The top screen had also changed, while in Heart Gold the top screen was blank, it now held a header of whatever option was highlighted with a small description underneath. Play Pokémon Diamond was above the small blurb, 'Start the game normally'.
Deciding to forego exploring the other options, Candace pressed the last option with her finger instead of the stylus and accidentally pressed it twice, leaving her without having the option to read whatever it meant by export. That particular word sparked an interest in Candace; it was a videogame that could not legally plug into any machine other than a DS so the teen wondered what it could mean. Inwardly shrugging, because she was sure she would find out soon enough, two options were now on the touch screen. Quickly deciding on Pokémon, Candace ignored the Items option entirely, and pressed the option she had chosen with her finger.
That led to a screen similar to the Move Pokémon option under Bill's PC on Heart Gold, despite the fact that the cartridge that was currently in the machine was Pokémon Diamond. Making a sound of interest, Candace raised an eyebrow when she noticed that the pokémon that she knew had been in her party were now in the box, and she tapped Aella with the stylus she had picked up off of her lap. The brunette smiled when she saw the gardevoir's info appear on the top screen and, decision made, she pressed the A button. She had hatched Aella herself on her other game for use in this one; when she had been able to catch pokémon in Diamond she had quickly captured pokémon to trade for the team she had prepared on her version of Heart Gold. The naïve and slightly stubborn ralts had caught her eye out of all the eggs she had hatched. While naïve wasn't the best nature for a gardevoir to have Candace had quickly become attached to the particular combination of personality traits and had even picked her over a modest ralts.
After pressing the A button there were the option to do three different things. Those were to check the summary, move, export and cancel. Candace paused and considered her options, 'Do I really want to do this without knowing what it does first…? This could do anything,' Candace looked down at the picture of Aella, 'What the hell, I've come this far!'
Without further hesitation the brunette tapped on the export button and pressed it again when it asked 'Are you sure you want to export this pokémon?' Due to the similarity to the release feature, the teen decided that if worse came to worse, she could always reset the game by turning it off. While of the opinion that it was silly to become attached to the pokémon that she had raised, they were only a bunch of pixels after all, Candace could not help but become at least slightly emotionally involved with the ones she had spent so much time training. Humming in interest, Candace watched the device in her hands and groaned when it went to yet another loading screen. Aella's info stayed on the top screen as the bar on the touch screen rapidly filled. Tensing, the brunette jumped when the touch screen emitted an eerie light. Within the light, that while bright did not affect her vision; Candace saw a sphere shaped red light appear several inches above the touch screen. The teen was flabbergasted. Despite only being a high school student, she knew very well that what was happening did not make any sense at all.
'That must be it… I'm going crazy!' Candace whimpered within her mind as the cherry sized orb of light solidified into an object she had only seen on screens before. The light abruptly disappeared; a small pokéball fell, making a clinking sound when it hit the former DS in her hands, and slid onto her lap. Frozen, she could only watch when it began to shake and expanded. Eyes widening to an almost impossible degree, the brunette watched incredulously as a red light came out of the pokéball with a popping noise. The red light began to form a shape in front of her and, after a few seconds, a very familiar and vaguely human shape started to solidify standing on the floor beside Candace's bed.
She could only remain silent as, for a mere moment, the humanoid figure remained still. Large red eyes blinked slowly at unfamiliar surroundings and Candace could easily make out the three small white horns that jutted out where a human's ears would be. The feminine thing, her mind had long ago refused to process just exactly what was happening, in front of the still teen had an unnaturally round face that was mostly obscured by a green helmet like hair. Candace could still see that those huge, unfocused eyes gazed in what could only be described as wonder at the world around it. Trying to gulp as silently as she could, Candace once again looked at the machine in her hands. Quickly glancing at the screen, it said something about Aella being successfully exported and to press any button to return to the main menu, the brunette pressed the A button and then silently pressed the Pokédex tab. Glancing at the green and white figure in front of her momentarily, the teen read her choices. There were only two options; Scan and Compiled Data. Candace chose the first option.
While refusing to call the creature in front of her by name, even though Candace knew very well what it was and even who it was, she couldn't help but look at it. Those expressive red eyes were framed by green hair that was tucked behind three white prongs that jutted out of its head. The remaining hair was draped over its white forehead. Two green fingers and a thumb attached directly to equally green arms stroked its own face and then carefully prodded the red fin like horn that protruded from between its small cleavage. At the very least, like all of its appearances in media, the figure in front of her appeared to be in clothes made of her own flesh. A slender white leg peaked out of the front parting of its white skirt as the feminine green, white and red thing took a shaky step forward.
Following the brief instructions on the top screen, Candace pointed the camera on the back of the lid at the supposed pokémon in front of her and pressed the A button. It only took a moment of silent scanning before a masculine, mechanical voice came out of the speakers, "Gardevoir, the Embrace Pokémon. It will try to guard its trusted Trainer with its life and will unleash its psychokinetic energy at full power when protecting the Trainer it has closely bonded with. Like most psychic pokémon, it can sense the emotions of other pokémon and people around it. Gardevoir also has the ability to see into the future and is not affected by gravity because it supports itself with psychic power."
While not appearing startled by the noise, those twinkling red eyes were now directed at Candace instead of her own two feet. When their eyes met Candace felt a wave of something rush over her and the teen could easily see that Aella's eyes were now glistening with unshed tears. In fact, she could feel moisture gathering at the corners of her own brown eyes. Feeling a little guilty, and about to open her mouth to speak, Candace was interrupted when a thought that was not her own popped up in her mind, /I'm okay, Candace. Just a little… overwhelmed./
Needless to say, Candace's mouth closed shut with a click and the brunette just continued to stare at the gardevoir in front of her in shock. Despite her own unsteadiness, Aella couldn't help but smile at her trainer's reaction to her sudden appearance in the flesh. Closing her eyes and concentrating, the female gardevoir spread out her senses and attempted to calibrate herself with the environment around her. Sensing another presence nearby, Aella scanned her trainer's recent memories and dismissed Candace's father Cameron as a threat. Despite how out of whack her powers were, it felt wonderful to finally be out here. Actually taking in a lungful of air and interacting with a world that she had long ago just felt as a tingle at the edges of her dulled senses was something that had been beyond what she had dared to hope.
In comparison, the world she had been in felt like an oppressing sense numbing darkness; the gardevoir had interacted with the world around her through battle but the only real presences were those of other pokémon. Everything had felt fake and two-dimensional, even herself. The world she was in now however, just screamed life and there was an actual mind behind the other human in the area. In the gardevoir's prior experience, only her own trainer had a mind of her own and even that mind had almost been beyond Aella's reach. Now, even the plants that were not pokémon had a presence of their own. Concentrating, Aella spread a thin and unseen layer of psychic energy over her body. That layer had long ago become second nature to the gardevoir; her elegant but slender legs had not evolved with the ability to hold her weight up for long without outside assistance.
This place, as hard as it was for Aella to admit, was definitely what could be called the 'real' world. Her own world, in comparison, had felt fake and plastic. Everything was just so different to what she was used to. Even the floor beneath her had a, she called for a word from Candace's mind, texture. Her own body felt different; she was now feeling sensations that the gardevoir had long ago associated with the feelings she occasionally received from Candace's real body.
Candace watched as the gardevoir stilled and closed her eyes. Looking closely at Aella, Candace noticed that while the green hair on Aella's head appeared to be in one solid piece, it was actually visibly thick hair that clumped into the sections that made up the gardevoir's hairstyle. So, theoretically, the teen supposed that Aella could grow her hair out if she wanted to. A foreign sense of amusement flashed into her consciousness and so, to retaliate, Candace tried to send a mental frown back. As if to confirm her suspicions, she saw a tiny smile begin to grow on the gardevoir's face and she felt the foreign emotion intensify.
The brunette looked on confused as Aella, with a momentary exclamation of, "Gardevoir!" suddenly threw herself into Candace's arms and wrapped her arms around the teen's shoulders. While the red fin like horn that jutted out of the gardevoir's chest dug uncomfortably into her collarbone, and despite her own reservations, Candace returned the hug immediately. If she was crazy, and all of the clues were pointing that way, this was a hell of a lot nicer hallucination than it could have been. If this led to her getting thrown into a funny farm, at the very least it wasn't that bad of a dream world to get stuck in for the foreseeable future.
A giggle echoed oddly in her mind before the same feminine voice from before, she assumed it was Aella's, pointed out, /You're not crazy… just incredibly lucky, I guess./
"So, the voice in my head tells me I'm not crazy?" Candace drawled the reply verbally but it seemed as if Aella had missed the sarcasm entirely. The teen felt the gardevoir vigorously nod her head from where it still rested on her shoulder. Having wrapped her arms around Aella to embrace her, the teen could feel the, she suspected red, spike that jutted out the other side of the gardevoir. The white cheek that was touching her own felt similar to her own skin, but the green skin of the gardevoir Candace had felt momentarily when wrapping her arms around Aella had felt more like smooth velvet. Any misgivings, despite any doubts that remained, ended momentarily while Aella projected warm, positive emotions at her.
When Candace tried to end the short cuddle, she could feel a slight amount of desperation from the gardevoir holding her, but she quickly stopped and froze when Aella's mental voice murmured, /Are you… Are you going to send me back in there?/ The gardevoir jerked away from Candace and stood up. Warm red eyes looked directly at the brunette and Aella started to shake while she waited for Candace to respond.
"What do you mean, send you back?" Candace tried to suppress raising her eyebrow while she asked the question in the gentlest tone she could manage.
/Back there… in that weird Pokédex you're holding./ Aella's voice quivered as she pointed a green finger at the handheld device in Candace's hand.
Pausing, Candace gathered her thoughts, and despite the fact that this was crazy, she well and truly considered what she should do. If she was truly going insane, from what Candace knew about people who had complex hallucinations such as what she was experiencing now, she would not doubt what was happening. Aella's reaction was also very worrying. 'Is it really that bad in there?' Candace thought as a wave of guilt hit her. She had a lot of pokémon on all of her copies of the games and if Aella was affected that badly by the thought of going back in, Candace couldn't imagine what was it like in there.
So, on the odd chance that this was real, Candace replied, "No, I wont send you back… My home is your home, if you want to stay."
AN: If you're wondering, yes, Aella is amplifying Candace's existing feelings for her. She isn't creating anything that wasn't already there in some form though. The reason she did this was because Candace was in shock and Aella wanted to help any way that she could. As Aella had been nothing more than a bunch of pixels that Candace had spent hours leveling up, Aella simply amplified the attachment that was already there and projected her own feelings to Candace.